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Wednesday, 20th October 2021

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A Huge Thank You to All of Our Supporters

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We’d love to share with you all, the benefit of your continued generosity and support.

We are incredibly grateful to everyone who has donated to NYCGB over the past year, with much of your kind support going towards funding our Financial Assistance Scheme in 2020/21. Your collective support enabled us to offer financial assistance to 169 talented young singers, ensuring that no young person was precluded from participating in our online spring and summer residential programmes.

“NYCGB has been a brilliant experience, I've met so many good friends and had amazing experiences with staff and students. Being in the Choir has allowed me to extend my musicianship immensely whilst also learning from established professionals in the industry. The staff have not only helped me develop in my ability to add to a Choir but also encouraged my development as a vocal soloist. Being at this course would not be possible without a bursary and I am immeasurably thankful for the opportunity to be in this ensemble.” Current member

 Let’s see the numbers

 Bursaries

• 79 bursary recipients were awarded free places on either our National Youth Girls’, Boys’ or Training Choir spring online digital courses
• 72 were awarded a bursary to take part in the summer residential courses
• 36 National Youth Choir members were awarded a bursary to take part in the year-long programme
• In total, 263 bursaries were awarded to 169 recipients

Awards

• Multiple awards were granted to aspiring members to assist with the cost of audition fees, membership fees, travel and course fees
• 31 awards to enable aspiring young singers to attend an online auditions
• 20 to assist with the cost of membership
• 25 awards to assist with the cost of travel to and from residential courses
• 10 special awards to enable members to take part in concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in December 2020

How this benefits our members

Following the completion of our online spring and summer residential courses we surveyed all participating members to obtain their feedback and understand the value and impact of our work with young people. Of those surveyed 89% said they had enjoyed the course, 82% had developed new skills and abilities, and 76% had improved their musicianship skills and vocal techniques. Alongside this, 86% reported an improvement in their health and wellbeing and 87% reported a sense of belonging to the NYCGB Community. However, these scores are slightly skewed by the diversely different visceral experiences of taking part in an online course in the spring and a summer residential course. Whilst the online spring courses scored high across all areas, it will never completely replace in-person learning, which as shown below had a greater impact across all areas of musical learning and personal development.

	Enjoyment	Skills/Abilities	Wellbeing	Musicianship	Vocal Technique	Community
Spring Online	85%	81%	85%	75%	70%	84%
Summer Residential	93%	84%	87%	78%	81%	91%

As always, we are immensley appreciative to all of our donors for their generous and ongoing support of NYCGB. For many families, supporting their child’s musical development could not be achieved without subsidised or bursary support. Ensuring that no one is excluded from receiving these opportunities, due to their financial circumstance, continues to be a vital part of our ongoing strategy. Thank you for your continued support, which not only helped us to achieve this aim in 2021 but has ensured that we will be in a strong position to reach, engage and inspire many more young people in the years ahead.